IBM, Lam Research Partner on Next-Gen Chip Manufacturing

IBM and Lam Research are pushing further down the Moore's Law rabbit hole.

The two companies announced a five-year agreement to develop new materials, fabrication processes, and High-NA EUV lithography to advance IBM's logic scaling roadmap, according to EE Times. The goal: chips beyond the 1-nm node.

"We are thrilled to be expanding our collaboration to tackle the next set of challenges to enable High-NA EUV lithography and sub-1-nm nodes," said Mukesh Khare, general manager of IBM Semiconductors at IBM Research.

The partnership aims to accelerate industry adoption of ASML's most advanced lithography tool. Notably, industry leader TSMC hasn't adopted High-NA EUV yet and continues using multi-patterning workarounds with older Low-NA EUV tools.

In 2021, IBM became the world's first to make a 2-nm chip. The company has since partnered with Japan's Rapidus to manufacture 2-nm devices by next year.

Vahid Vahedi, chief technology and sustainability officer at Lam Research, said the effort will focus on "atomic-level precision in patterning, etch, and deposition" to enable the ultra-fine features needed for sub-1-nm logic.

The companies declined to disclose potential chipmaking partners or a timeline for commercial production.